The Trouble with Ghosts (Here Witchy Witchy Book 3)

by A. L. Kessler

  Mason sighed and stuck his head out the door, calling orders about the tables. “You can’t always depend on magic.”

  “You’re right, but it helps me a lot.” The truth spell was the first magic that I had done on this case. The trace spell was because we kept hitting dead end after dead end. “I’ll see you later, I need to go do one more thing before I head back to the north office.”

  “Are you calling this case closed?” He asked.

  I nodded. “This part of it, yes, I’ll send you the report and the paperwork on him and Ira. I’ll do what I can to find the woman who impersonated the officer and bring her in, but that’s the last piece of this part.”

  “Where are you going to start looking for her?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m betting she’s connected with the receptionist suspected of blowing up our building.” It was a gut feeling, but the rune looked similar to the language I found in my house too. The question was, how did she get in there? I had a security system. I needed to get to an Internet connection and start sorting through the video to see if there was something that popped up on the feed.

  “A couple of troubling witches in our city.” He muttered. “Keep me updated.”

  “I will.” I walked out of the station while I sent my uncle a text. “I’m heading your direction. No questions asked.”

  The response came quickly. “I’ll see you soon.”

  I entered Oliver’s house without knocking. I’d let him known that I was on my way up, he also had an advanced security system so I knew he was aware that I’d arrived.

  “I’m in the back room, Abigail.”

  His voice came from a speaker somewhere near the front door. I kicked my shoes off and went to find him. He was sitting in front of a computer watching clips of the PIB attack. “How did you survive this?”

  “I had just left. I’d gotten impatient for the elevator and took the stairs. I was about a block away when the explosion happened.”

  “And your partner didn’t make it.” He said, matter of factly. “You missed a training session without explanation.”

  I thought back and then cursed. “I’m sorry, as you can see, my plate is full. I’ve been doing better with control.”

  He laughed. “Is that so? I heard you trapped a vampire in a red circle with intention of harming him.”

  “Levi called you?”

  He spun around in the chair to look at me. “He was worried that I was corrupting you.”

  “It wasn’t with my elemental ability that I lost control. It was just general magic, and I actually had complete control over it.” I rolled my eyes. “Look, I just need to borrow a room to perform a tracking spell.”

  “Can’t do it at your house because it no longer exists. Why not Levi’s?” He raised a brow. “Not trusting your dear adopted father?”

  “He has a guest and I don’t really want to explain who I’m tracking to either of them.” I shook my head. “My parents’ house doesn’t really have a safe spot yet for me to perform magic.”

  “In case you lose control. Are you always so cautious?”

  “Normally, yes.” I normally performed my magic in a room at Levi’s house that was magically enhanced to keep my magic in if something went wrong. It was really a precaution, but because of how rash my emotions had been making me the last few days, I didn’t want to risk it.

  “You can have the room up front to use. It has a physical circle under the carpet, good luck.” He turned back to his computer.

  “What? You don’t want to join me? No supervision?” I joked as I headed out of the room.

  “You’re a grown witch Abigail, I trust you know the difference between good and bad. Besides, I’m trying to figure out if there was a specific target in this attack.”

  His words made me pause and I looked over my shoulder. He motioned to the screen. “The yellow Hummer, that’s you, right?”

  “Correct, my car was destroyed earlier this week.” I wasn’t going to give him more of an explanation. He probably already knew what happened.

  “You were two blocks away exactly when it happened. Did you feel anything?”

  “No, I didn’t. I felt the explosion and that’s it. If you’re looking to connect this to me, I wasn’t the target. PIB was. We already have a working theory on it.”

  He spun around to face me again, folding his hands in his lap. “Do you care to share?”

  “Nope, not even my case, so I’m not touching it.” I walked out of the room.

  My feet made no noise against the soft carpet of the hallway. The walls still gave no signs of who Oliver was or if he had any other family. I learned in a previous case he had an estranged daughter, but he had no pictures of her anywhere in the house. I made it to the front room and it was very much the same.

  Soft carpet, blank walls, and a fireplace on the far end. Nothing burned in the fireplace, no sign of smoke or ember, but the fire extinguisher was still sitting by it. This was the room that Oliver and I normally trained in, he still didn’t trust my control and despite water being his element, he kept the extinguisher. I hadn’t realized there was a circle in this room, but we never activated it. Probably because he wanted it as another safety precaution. And he thought I was overly cautious.

  I closed my eyes and let my magic and aura reach out to the floor beneath the plush carpet. Searching for the physical circle to guide it. A shock went through me as my magic found it. My fingers tingled as if I was caressing the etched circle and my aura guided me to the middle. With a thought I closed the circle around it. Silently asking the elements to guide me through this.

  I didn’t have all the things I needed for the spell. I was going to have to improvise a little bit. Where I normally used a map, I’d have to have my magic show me the location in a different way. I pulled out the picture of Ira and my knife. I sat cross legged in the middle of the circle, the faint purple glow of it calming me. I put the picture down and cut my forearm. I wiped the blood on the picture and whispered the Latin words.

  The vampire wasn’t going to hide from me for very long. No. I was going to hunt that bastard down with magic and then give the executioners a mark. The photo drew my blood in with the magic and I turned the paper over. “Now show me where…. give me something.” I whispered.

  Red lines drew across the paper into a shape. The wavy lines gave way to a few dots and I knew what it was. Alaska. My vampire was hiding in Alaska. I waited for more to come, but nothing else showed up. It was as close as I could get, but it was better than nothing.

  Taking a deep breath, I pulled my magic into me and tucked the picture into my notes. Progress. Progress felt good. I pulled my phone out to text Nick…

  The thrill of progress gave way to heart breaking grief that stole my breath. My heart skipped a few beats as I fought against what was normal for me. There was no Nick to text, there was no chance to brag and give him grief about the case. I put my phone back and held my head down.

  “Oh Abigail, what has crossed your mind?” Oliver’s voice pulled me out of the physical slump.

  “I was just thinking about Nick.” I stood up. “Thank you for letting me use your room. I need to get back to the North PIB office.”

  “So you can fill out your execution request.” He nodded. “You make sure to keep a rein on your magic. Understood?”

  I snorted. “Yes, of course.” He wasn’t my parent; he was my uncle who popped back into my life randomly. If he was basing me losing control off of what I did to Mario, I wondered what he would think of what happened when I was with Merick. Of course, he didn’t seem to know about that. Interesting. He normally kept pretty close tabs on me.

  I wasn’t going to bring it up. I grabbed my bag off the floor. “Again, thank you.”

  “You drove all this way just to borrow a room?” He asked, almost stepping in front of me.

  “Maybe I just needed to be around someone who wasn’t going to lecture me or question what I was doing.” I pulled my bag on. �
��Just for a few minutes.” As I said it, I realize that it was true. Oliver trusted me to make my own mistakes. He wouldn’t interfere in what I was doing and I highly doubted that he would discourage me if he knew that I was chasing after a vampire who had a connection to the king.

  “You’re more like me than Levi gives you credit for. More like your father…he always hoped and wished you’d be pure. Your mother was never capable of summoning a circle to harm. You, though. The moment you saw Mario as a threat, you didn’t hesitate. You might have been running off of emotions, but you knew he could be a threat and you neutralized him.”

  I sighed. “I won’t make it a habit.”

  “Your first time is a thrill, isn’t it?” He leaned against the wall. “To realize that you hold a person’s fate in your hands.”

  I shook my head and started out of the room. “I didn’t do it to take or threaten his life, I did it to make him shut up so I could get answers.”

  “Levi said you threatened to shoot the vampire.” Oliver chuckled and followed me out. “Oh Abby, I think you’re a little more wild than you want to admit.”

  I ignored him. I walked out of his house and questioned if it really had been worth the drive up for this. I could have worked it out in the woods, or sucked it up and gone to Levi’s. A strange feeling of comfort came over me and I realized that Oliver was right. I was a little wilder than I had wanted to admit.

  I climbed into the Hummer. Oliver stood at his front door and met my gaze through the windshield. He gave me a little nod as if acknowledging the thought I’d just had. I didn’t think he was a telepath, I just thought we had a bit more in common than we realized.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  When I had left Oliver’s, I knew there was one more thing I needed to do before I could file all the paperwork. PIB rules, and just mere common sense, said that we needed to contact any supernatural group that was involved in cases. I had called Simon on the way back into the city and gotten his voicemail. I’d left him one that was heartfelt that told him I needed to speak to him about the case, but that none of his wolves were in trouble. I offered to buy him coffee and hoped that he would meet me at the shop.

  I pulled up to the shop and stepped out. I looked around the parking lot and didn’t see a familiar car, but that didn’t mean anything. Though I couldn’t help the small amount of disappointment that he wasn’t there. After everything this last week, I could have used a friendly face. Of course, the last time we saw each other, neither of us had been friendly.

  I walked into the shop, the little bell dinging above my head. I heard someone clear their throat and I realized that I was staring down at my feet when I walked in. Simon was sitting at one of the small tables and waved me over. He wore a small smile on his face and I couldn’t tell if it was forced or not. Two cups of coffee in mugs already sat on the table.

  “You know, I said that I’d treat you to coffee.” I sat down, putting my bag by feet.

  He nodded. “But with how much of a jerk I was, I figured I owed you some.”

  That was probably as close to an apology as I was going to get. I pulled out a folder from my bag. “So I know you weren’t pack master ten years ago.”

  He snorted. “Of course not, I was barely a pup then.”

  “But my case found five werewolf victims and I have to make you aware of it now.” I opened the file and found the pictures from the database. “These five men were used in an experiment ran by a vampire named Ira. They died because of failed blood transfusions.”

  He took the papers from me and frowned. “I remember when they disappeared. It was a huge blow to the pack because they told us they were going for a medical experiment meant to help our kind.”

  “Ira is trying to create hybrid paranormal creatures by mixing blood.” I gently took the folder back from him. “That’s all we know about it.”

  “Have you caught him?”

  I wanted to lie to him, but I couldn’t. “We have some of his associates in custody, but he’ll be put on an execution list.”

  “Rough case then.” He muttered.

  He had no idea. I took a sip of my coffee. “Did you get the bar taken care of?”

  “I did. I don’t really like the new witch, but I guess I’ll deal with it. I saw the news, PIB office being blown up. Tough break.”

  “Someone was sending us a message.” I cupped my coffee. “I am sorry about your bar, but I wasn’t going to let him get away with threatening me.”

  “I looked back at the security footage, which I should have done in the first place. You had all rights to do what you did. Thank you for not shooting him.” He shook his head. “You seem to be making more enemies when you should be making more allies.”

  I thought back to the house imploding, and the newfound alliance with Merick. “I think I’m doing okay. Most of your pack still respects me.”

  “Some of them do. Some of them are still looking for a cure…” He glanced back at the folder. “I wonder if that’s what those five were after.”

  “There’s no telling. There’s no telling why any of them went there. It just all went so horribly wrong.” They had put their trust in the wrong people. “Keep your wolves safe and away from Calico research, even if they promise a cure.”

  “Thanks for the heads up.” He put a hand on top of mine. “A friend of mine told me about Nick…if you need anything. Let me know.”

  I turned my hand up and squeezed his. “I will, thank you. I have to go though. I have to get that execution report in and some other paperwork done to close these cases. I’m staying at my parents’ place for now…if you feel the need, stop in. I wouldn’t turn down company.” I put the folder back into my bag and stood. “Thank you for meeting me.”

  He stood and pulled me into a hug. For a moment I felt like all of me was going to stick back together and the grief would disappear. “Of course.”

  He let go and I missed the warmth of him. I shook it off, the grief and emotions were messing with my head. Neither of us were ready for a committed relationship. Especially right now.

  I got back to the North PIB office. I thought about taking the elevator for a moment, but decided to take the stairs to the fourth floor where they had moved the office that was going to be my temporary quarters. I walked in to see Agent Grace talking with the supervisor.

  “Hi Abby, I thought I’d meet you here.”

  I tried not to be skeptical. Part of me wondered if she wanted her name on the paperwork because it would be good for her career. “Great, we can get it all filed together.” I tried to sound enthusiastic, but I know some of my irritation played across. This was not her case, it was mine and Nick’s case. His name should have been next to mine on the paperwork.

  “I’ve already got it filed. Unless there was something you needed to add?” Something in her voice warned me off, telling her that I had an estimated location on the vampire.

  I shook my head. “No, but I’ll get on the paperwork right away for Jerry. I got him to confess that Nathaniel was killed for the purpose of not ratting on them.”

  “A job well done, then.”

  I wouldn’t have called it well done since we didn’t have the receptionist, the person who worked against me at the station, or the vampire, but she was so eager to close the case. “We’ll call it that.” I forced a smile. She walked out and the supervisor looked at me.

  “Something else I can help you with then, Agent Collins?”

  I nodded. “I’d like to see that request.”

  “Of course.” He pulled out a folder and slid it to me. “Just let me know if there was something else that needs to be added. If you want to take a moment to look it over, we have a room just to the left.” He motioned to it.

  I glanced at the room with the glass door and headed in that direction. I had told Grace that I would handle the request. So why had she come up here to do it herself? Did she think I wouldn’t question it?

  The blinds in the room were all pulled, blockin
g out the soon to be setting sun. I sat down and flipped the folder open. The papers were held in place by metal tabs through holes at the top. The cover page simply stated “execution request.”

  I pulled that up to look at the report underneath. Everything was pretty textbook about why we wanted a team to take out Ira. The only thing she listed as unknown was his location. And under other notes she had ‘same sire as the king of vampires’. I hadn’t been aware that she knew that relationship, seeing I had to demand it out of Levi. How come she knew that and I didn’t? Her clearance maybe?

  I whited out location unknown and put in Alaska. In the back of the request there was a zip folder and I put the picture from my spell there and marked it under the reference spot on the slip. I felt a little more confident with the case by handing over what the location was according to my magic. There was at least something there for people to go off of. Maybe, just maybe, we could bring this guy in at some point.

  I closed the file and looked up as the door to the room opened. Grayson stepped in. “You were warned to let this case be.”

  “Several times, but now it’s out of my hands. It’s daylight, how are you here?” I met his two different colored eyes.

  “I’ve been working around the clock on a different case and been staying in the basement. The case, Abigail, you should have stayed away from it.”

  “Now it’s in the executioners’ hands since I’m not allowed to hunt Ira.”

  He flinched at the name. “That attack on PIB, it was meant for you.”

  “No it wasn’t, it happened after I left the building.”

  “You normally take the elevator…but something delayed it so you took the stairs, getting you out of the building earlier.” He stated. “Nick wasn’t the only one meant to die. You were too.”

  My heart fell at the mention of Nick. “Get out.”

  “The attacks are just going to keep coming if you insist on taking these cases. You need to retire.”

  “I said get out.” I could feel my magic starting to boil below the surface. If I lost control here, I’d be suspended for sure. “I don’t need any more crazy half ass warnings.”